Google has decided to discontinue Needlebase.com, “a service Google acquired in April 2011 [read about that acquisition here]. Needlebase will run until 1 June 2012, to allow current users to download their material. Needlebase is a platform for acquiring, integrating, cleaning up, combining, analyzing and publishing data on the web, and is being used in the open data community to turn available public sector information into re-usable data. It lowers the threshold for people to work with data significantly.”

The article notes, “According to a blog post on the Needlebase weblog, attempts will be made to integrate Needlebase’s functionality into other Google services, although it is not clear if that indeed will happen.” The blog states, “We’ve been hard at work planning how to best integrate Needlebase’s technology with Google’s portfolio, which includes structured-data initiatives like Fusion Tables, Google Refine, Public Data Explorer, and Freebase.”

Image: Courtesy Needlebase